


Dead and Buried

by Searbreon



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 20:29:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21203639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Searbreon/pseuds/Searbreon





	Dead and Buried

### Afraid

###    
Ana Bray looked out over the rust-colored horizon of Mars. It had been over a year since she found and freed Rasputin. Over a year since Xol perished at the hands of a powerful fellow Guardian. She had chosen to stay here and watch over Rasputin while delving deeper into the secrets of her past life. The Vanguard fears he’ll become The Tyrant, a nickname given to him by other AIs. They don’t know him like she does. He’s a guardian angel for the last bastion of humanity that luckily survived The Collapse.  
  
A whooshing sound alerted her to her ghost’s appearance. “What is it, Jinju?”  
  
“I’m getting a message from The Vanguard,” responded her ghost, it’s yellow eye lighting up with its vocalization.  
  
Taking her technologically enhanced eyes from the view she had grown fond of on this planet and focusing them on her ghost, she commanded, “Play it.”  
  
Zavala’s voice crackled through her ghost. “Attention all Guardians: Last night, we detected a seismic disturbance on the Moon. Within hours, it was swarming with Hive. This plague must not be allowed to spread.”  
  
Ana stifled a chuckle. “Classic Zavala. Always demanding help, but never actually asking.”  
  
“Shall I ready your ship?” inquired her ghost.  
  
Ana lazily waved Jinju off. “No need. He called all Guardians. He’ll have plenty of help.”  
  
Her ghost hovered in silence with its outer shell shifting around its center eye ever so slightly.  
  
Ana sighed. “Okay, Okay. I’ll think about going. Keep me updated on whats- ” A loud blaring sound like a gong played through a distorted amp shook the building around her. A look of concern etched itself across her face as she rushed over to the console where she could communicate with the Warmind. “What is it, Rasputin? What’s wrong?”  
  
“Луна преследует” it’s ominous and thunderous voice shouted out from the speakers.  
  
Ana cocked her head in surprise. “The Moon is haunted? What do you mean by that?”  
  
“Луна преследует” it repeated.   
  
Startling her, Jinju asked, “What does he mean by that?”  
  
“I’m not sure, but he’s gone into high alert and turning Mars into a fortress. It’s like he’s... afraid. What could make Rasputin afraid?” She paused for a moment before whispering, “The Moon is haunted.... Jinju, ready the ship. We’re headed to the Moon.”  
  
“Shall I alert Zavala?”  
  
“No.”  


### Into the Depths

###    
Ana stood inside the entrance cleared by the Vanguard and their tanks. Innumerous Hive husks littered the floor around her. A spherical hunk of chitin lay in the center, the corpse of a large shrieker.  
  
“Looks like our friend’s been busy,” regarded Jinju over her shoulder.  
  
“When aren’t they?” replied Ana as she surveyed the battlefield carnage before her. “You said they weren’t headed towards the keep?”  
  
“No. I intercepted a communique between them and Ikora. They went looking for Eris down in the depths of the moon.”  
  
“Eris...” whispered Ana as she used her eyes in an attempt to scan through the walls around her. As she looked down, her eyes honed in on their fellow guardian in combat, but they couldn’t comprehend what was being fought appearing as only mist to her eyes. “That’s definitely where we need to go.”  
  
“Is... is that necessary?” Fear and worry apparent in her ghost’s tone.  
  
She looked at her little companion with concern. “What’s wrong, Jinju?”  
  
“I feel something- unsettling- something wrong down there.”  
  
Ana looked at the doorway leading into the abyss. She’d always been a little reckless, but the combined fear of Rasputin and Jinju... what could be down there? “Then our friend might need our help this time.” Without hesitation she ran through the doorway and began her descent, Jinju reluctantly hot on her trail.   
  
She raced through the labyrinth of the deep continuing to pass dead Hive. Letting her guard down momentarily due to the conveniently resistance-less path, she rounded a corner and ran straight into the back of a towering Hive Knight. It turned its hulking body around quickly and swung its bulky sword at her head. Ducking just in time, she rolled off to the side into the wall before leaping up and calling upon her light for a second aerial lift allowing her to grab onto a ledge high above the Knight and out of its reach. She pulled herself up and fired several shots from her Polaris Lance. They appeared to do little but tickle her foe.  
  
Before she could think of what to do next, a chilling roar from above startled her. She looked up in time to see two more Knights dropping from cliffs above her one in a full swinging motion of his sword. The sword smashed into the ledge, narrowly missing Ana, with earth-shattering force before she could bail causing it to crumble under her feet. She plummeted back down towards her initial opponent. Managing to recover, she rolled onto her feet, but as she got upright, the first Knight smashed his sword into her arm knocking her Polaris Lance off to the side. Pain shot through her body as the bones in her arm were crushed from the force. Her feet instinctively began backpedaling as she yowled.  
  
“Jinju! A bit of help?” she cried out barely keeping her calm.  
  
A sudden influx of Light infused into her following the whoosh of her ghost as it appeared on the battlefield. Ana felt her arm slowly healing, but her concern focused on the lust now showing on the Knight’s faces as they hungrily starred at Jinju. The pace of their rumbling footsteps quickened.   
  
“I hope you have a plan here, Ana,” said Jinju in a panic.  
  
“Hurry it up!” she hastily replied as she continued backpedaling.  
  
Several long moments passed before the influx of Light had stopped as the last of her bones were rejuvenated. “Whatever you have up your sleeve do it now!” Jinju exclaimed.  
  
Ana reached her arm into the sky. In a blinding flash of light, a Golden Gun made of pure solar fusion energy appeared in her hand. The Knights leapt bearing the full force of their swords down on Ana. Three ear-shattering shots echoed throughout the cavern and corridors. As silence settled in the abyss, the remaining chitin of her now vaporized foes quickly turned to ash as a remnant of her Light burned where they once were. Ana closed her eyes as she felt the warmth of the solar energy wash over her comforting her.   
  
Jinju interrupted her peace. “You’re getting rusty.”  
  
She ignored her ghost’s snide remark as she felt her golden gun dissipate in her hand. Opening her eyes, she walked over to where her Polaris Lance laid on the ground and picked it up. Without a word, she sprinted down the corridor. Jinju began to follow her vanishing back into safety.  


### A Ghost, a Ghost, and a Ghost

###    
Gunfire echoed throughout the crudely carved cave. Ana’s feet carried her as quickly as they could towards it. She was ready for anything. The cave system opened into a colossal crevice in the moon’s surface.   
  
“Ana...” Jinju nervously said. When she didn’t respond or change her pace, it yelled, “Ana!”  
  
“What?!” she snapped in return.  
  
“Look up,” Jinju replied in a near whisper.  
  
Her eyes drifted up; almost instantly, her feet came sliding to a halt. On a cliff overlooking her position, were nearly a dozen, ghostly figures, blood red in color, in the rough shape of armored Guardians. “What the hell are those? My eyes can’t make sense of them.”  
  
“I’m... I’m not sure. Their energy is... weird.”  
  
The ghostly figures just hovered, completely stationary and not reacting to Ana’s presence in any way. “Hmm... we don’t have time for this. Keep your eye on them and let me know if they move!” she commanded before returning into an all out sprint. As she rounded the next corner, her heart skipped a beat and she stumbled as she once again came to a halt. Jinju ran into her back knocking her over. “This... This can’t be!” she gasped while on her knees. A massive Tetrahedron ship loomed in the distance.  
  
“Ana, I’m feeling... sick. Something’s interfering with my Light like during the Red War, but it’s... more sinister.”   
  
She turned and placed her hand under her levitating companion. “It’s ok, Jinju. We are in way over our heads. Our friend is, too. We need to get them and get the hell out of here.”  
  
“You know what that thing is?” inquired Jinju.  
  
“Not really. I was digging through Rasputin’s files. I came across one that mentioned something like that during the collapse with a distorted picture. Before I was able to read much of it, Rasputin locked me out of the file and buried it. He was angry with me, and I’m pretty sure that’s what has him so spooked now.”  
  
Jinju put its focus back onto its Guardian. “I’m okay to keep going, Ana. Let’s hurry.”  
  
Ana nodded and continued her rush to where the gunfire continued, a fact that was worrying when involving a Guardian who had killed a Hive worm god. The gunfire grew closer, around the next corner by Ana’s estimation. She readied her Lance and slid around the corner. A horde of thrall and acolytes were frantically chasing a Guardian who had jumped into the air while firing their weapon. As Ana fired her first salvo of shots, the Guardian vanished in a shimmering green light; pockets of thrall exploded and burned as her Polaris Lance did its job.  
  
Moments after their fellow Guardian disappeared, the remaining thrall and acolytes turned into a red mist and began to vanish. Confused, Ana slightly relaxed her stance before a towering hive knight who had begun to turn into red mist as well walked out from behind a rock formation, a very distinct glow telling Ana exactly who stood before her. She began to raise her arm, ready to call for her Golden Gun once more. His three eyes stared at her menacingly, and he let out a ferocious roar before shifting into a large cloud of thick red mist.  
  
“Was that-” Jinju began in disbelief.  
  
“-Crota.” finished Ana stunned with her arm still raised.  
  
“I thought he was-”  
  
“-Dead. He is. This is- this is something else. We need to get out of-”  
  
“Ana!” yelled a familiar but impossible voice echoing through the canyon.  
  
Ana gasped. In the thick red mist she saw her. “Camrin?!” Ana replied in shock. Her feet began taking small steps toward the ghost from her past.  
  
“Why did you leave me behind, Ana? We were supposed to find The Warmind together!” it shouted at her.  
  
Tears began to form in Ana’s eyes. She tried to think of a response, but words escaped her. All she wanted to do was embrace the facsimile of her late love.   
  
“You knew I wasn’t immortal like you! But that didn’t stop you from recklessly leading me into danger! You are why I’m dead!” it continued.  
  
Ana fell to her knees with tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry, Camrin!” she shouted back. “I’m so sorry!”  
  
“No you’re not! All you cared about was finding that damned Warmind! You never cared about me! All you ever cared about was the past of your former life!” It wouldn’t relent.  
  
As Ana came close to reaching her breaking point, a holographic projection of Camrin appeared next to her, originating from her ghost. It showed Camrin lying on her deathbed, bandages all over her face and the erratic beep of her failing heart through the heart monitor in the background. “We are not a sometimes thing or a convenient thing. We are an always thing,” Camrin from the years old recording said weakly.  
  
Ana’s fists clenched, the tears still streaming down her face. “Thank you, Jinju,” she managed to say though her cries of heartache.  
  
“I’m sorry, Ana. I know you told me to not play the recordings and let Camrin rest...” replied Jinju.  
  
Ana looked at Jinju with a sad smile. “It was- perfect. It was just what I needed to conquer this-” she looked back at the apparition and continued, “-haunting.” It hovered in front of Ana, finally quiet. Ana stared at it for several moments. As if it had given up its torture, it began to disperse.  
  
“Ana Bray, caretaker of The Tyrant. How serendipitous.” While what she had just heard came from and sounded like Jinju, there was no emotion or familiarity to it. Chills went down her spine. “Come. Join us.” Without a moment to dwell on what had just happened to her closest friend, a bright light originating from the tetrahedron behind caught her attention. Immediately, an overpowering force began to pull her into the pyramid.   


### Forewarned

###    
Ana found herself standing in a thick dark mist. She could see her hand, but no light was visible. Slowly, the mist began to dissipate, giving way to a Vex-constructed mountainous landscape the ground teeming with vegetation and red and white flowers.  
  
Suddenly, a voice she recognized, her voice, spoke behind her. “Welcome, Ana Bray.”  
  
Ana spun around and found herself staring at her doppelganger with several of the tetrahedron ships hovering behind it. Cocking her head to the side in confusion she asked, “What are you?”   
  
“Your salvation. We’re coming and this time The Tyrant can’t hide,” it replied smugly  
  
“He’ll be ready for you!” responded Ana stubbornly despite not knowing what she was facing.  
  
The doppelganger laughed in amusement. “You don’t know what he’s done or what he is capable of. He is the last of his kind, and his kind-” its face, her face, became more serious and focused intensely on Ana. “-needs to be extinct. Tell him that for us.”  
  
“Why don’t you tell him that your-” Before Ana could finish her retort, everything went black. “-self.” Ana bolted up. She found herself on the ground with the tetrahedron on the Moon towering above her.  
  
“Good! You’re awake,” her frantic ghost exclaimed. “Can we leave? I can- feel that thing still. It’s taunting me, threatening to take over again.”  
  
Ana nodded towards Jinju. She grabbed her rifle that was lying next to her and began jogging back up to the surface.  
  
Ana walked into the center of the Aurora Mindlab on Mars where Rasputin’s core had lain hidden for centuries before she had found it. The orange holographic sphere in the middle pulsated as Rasputin acknowledge her presence, “Привет анастасия.”  
  
Ana nodded towards the sphere. “Hello, Rasputin. I found what was hiding on the moon. It said they were coming.” Rasputin remained silent. “They said you can’t hide this time.”  
  
“Я не собираюсь прятаться. Мне нет равных сейчас,” he replied.  
  
“Are you sure you don’t have an equal? I’ve read what you’ve been studying. You’ve been trying, and failing, to understand the Light, but this thing... this thing invaded and took control of Jinju! It was able to manipulate The Light. We need to prepare for it. I intend on waking up all the dormant Warmind vaults and Braytech facilities across the solar system. I promised to stay here with you, but I need to do this for your protection as well as humanity’s. I promise I’ll return.” She stood waiting for a response, but when none came, she turned and walked out with the vault doors sealing behind her.  
  
As the lock engaged, Rasputin finally replied in the Russian he chose to speak, “I’ll miss you, Anastasia. Be careful.”  



End file.
